DM Fang Dragon’s Ruins of Adventure (Inactive)

Game Master FangDragon

Just following along, not sure if there's a consensus yet on a plan. Kardas and Ishta what do you think?

Ishta smiles, jokingly. "Ser Armithia, when it comes to divine tasks, there's no doubt you're the skilled one here. When it comes to argueing with a lady, though, you haven't seem to realize that the argument itself is only postponing the lady's victory." A faint giggle accompanies her last words, and the arcanist starts preparing for the plan as Azarra envisioned it.

Kardas has mulled on the topic while Armithia proposed his obviously flawed plan. The little gits would just pelt him with arrows, javelins, and worse. And as any nomad knows, when in flat terrain with nowhere to run, all you need to do is wait. Big cats, wolves, and other beasts of prey have taught humanoids this lesson since the beginning of time. And by Bane's burning balls, these kobolds have some of the most vicious wolves of them as mounts and mentors. "If we can protect Ishta from common projectiles by spell, and bless ourselves with the ability to fly or walk the winds, we can descent upon the high shaman's tent and strike at the heart of this tribe. Say we manage to do so, Azarra could try using magic to cast her voice and tell the kobolds that these plains belong to a mighty dragon of sorts which does not want them here, and Ishta can conjure forth an appropriate elemental blast to give credence to Azarra's words."

He scratches his knuckles even though there's no itch to be found. "I can use my magic to temporarily transform myself into a lizardman, weave lightning or cold over my blade, and pretend to be a blessed warrior of said dragon. We go in with shock and awe, drop the message, and pull out. It's vital we cut away their leadership so that the spine that brought them out here collapses."

Ok. If Kardas is going to use awesomeness like this by Bane's burning balls; he has to say it aloud for all to enjoy...lol!

Ser Armithia nods in accent.

EDIT: According to Kardas, Resist Energy Fire!

Will be interesting to see which spells you'll memorise for this :)

I don't have a spell like that, and I can't switch out my spells like Ishta can, sorry. No fly or windwalk. Prestidigitation might project my voice a little, but overall I think that plan is a little beyond what we can do. Maybe torches would help though. We could set fire to whatever the fireballs don't get.

Ser Armithia then wishes for a wheel barrow and a Holi cost cloak....

"Can you do illusions? Maybe the Wagon could be disguised as a dragon... The s Watcher's Dragon Wagon!"

Omg somebody kill me before it goes too far...

No, I can't do illusions... oh, wait. You guys are messing with me, right? This is a joke?

Illusions aside the plan appears to get an enlarged monstrous from Kardas to fly in and tell them to go away in draconic. Backup plan: Fireballs. Did I get that right?

Ser Armithia seems to be giggling under his helmet.

Are you ready to move out?

Okay, I'm outvoted, which is fair. Do the warning thing, and then we'll play it by ear from there. Ready.

The Clan Bearhawk scout Beds agrees to guide you towards the Kobold camp but she makes it clear she's not joining any suicidal head on attack pointing out there's hundreds of them.

The summoning of the Dawnwagon caused quite the sensation among the tribesmen who were clearly very impressed. They were impressed again when its speed became noted and the fact it glided above the grass leaving no trail!

Half an hour later following Neda's directions you found a low rise from which in the distance you could see a wide trampled trail leading to the encampment. The plane meant there was no cover, the only reason the Kobold's hadn't spotted you was because you were lying down on top the 15'or so rise. The camp was ringed with three rings of sharpened stakes and in the center were a mass of Kobolds and wargs.

I'll get you a map soon but this should give you an idea hopefully. Anyway actions?

How far away are we?

About a mile. Close enough to see the base but the kobolds look like ants at this distance.

No actions for me. When we get a little closer I'll cast invisibility maybe.

Moving closer is an action. Please folks tell me what you want to do. You will likely be seen if you get closer without taking precautions. Maybe that's ok? I not clear what your plans are.

I thought that we were doing the Kardas draconian bit; while we went Invisible to get to the center somehow? Dimensional door?

OK. You need to plan how you cover the distance between the low hill and their camp. The grass is 1-2 foot high so it's possible you could crawl a significant part of the way and not be seen.

Azarra is not sure how they got to the point where Ser was going to get to be bait after all, but she shrugged and started crawling through the grass, trying to get within max bow range.

Max bow range for an orc hornbow is 800 feet out (that would be a -18 to hit, so not really reasonable to fight from there unless you are casting true strike every turn... she's just trying to get that close as a better starting position).

She specifically does not crawl with Ser, because his clanking will mess up her stealth, and she crawls upwind so that if she sets a fire in the brush, the wind will carry it towards their camp.

Stealth: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (4) + 16 = 20

Crawling a couple of hundred yards closer to the perimeter, Azarra is confident nobody noticed her. She thinks she could close to within 400 yards before getting any closer became risky for her.

Not had a chance to get a map yet, I'll try to do that tomorrow.

How long will it take for us to get there in minutes, approx? Ishta could cast Invisibility on everyone.

Depends on how you're getting there. You have some options: Crawling (will take quite some time maybe 10 minutes), walking speed is approx 320 feet per minute so 2.5 mins. You could run at 2x that if you needed to. There's also the Dawnwagon which is much faster, perhaps 30s to get there.

Here's a quick map of the camp. It's about 400 feet wide.

Just checking... you said "She thinks she could close to within 400 yards before getting any closer became risky for her." ... did you mean feet rather than yards?

Azarra carefully crawls to within 400 feet (If that is what was meant)

Stealth: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (19) + 16 = 35

Perception: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (7) + 18 = 25

She sees several warg rider patrols of 4 each hanging around the camp. Unfortunately the others are currently out of range of a message spell looks like Max 190 feet at 9th level, so she waits to pass the information on.

Sorry I meant feet.

Azarra takes the lead and Ishta addresses the rest of the party.

"We should wait in case she brings some news, but assuming we need to get closer by ourselves, what do you prefer? Invisibility? Throw stealth to the bin and use the chariot? You guys tell me."

If we walk, Invisibility would last for the entire walk and more. Not so if we crawl. I assume being invisible doesn't fix the problem of being heard or even smelled, but sadly that's the most I can do.

Until you're very close Scent is all a matter of the direction of the wind, fortunately (or unfortunately) it's blowing from the north so you can smell the kobolds and their wargs and not the other way around.

Once Azarra returns; we want to get to their leaders, before all hell breaks out. So, invisibility in; chariot out.

Azarra you have a good idea were Ser is crawling noting the grass twitching around him. He's a fair distance from you but you could easily get within message range if you liked.

Ishta casts Invisibility on Ser, and on Kardas if he also wants. Then she casts Greater Invisibility on herself, and starts walking to meet Azarra.

Azarra gets within 190 feet of the grass disturbances and sends a message to Ser, warning him about the ward rider patrols, then backs off again, trying to stay hidden.

Once invisible, the Paladin begins moving toward the Bard. He relays her message.

The invisible duo walk towards Azarra although they couldn't prevent the grass from quivering as they passed. Still needs a DC 20 perception check, not trying to nerf your ability.

@Kardas are you with Ishata & Ser Armithia?

May I retcon casting Resist Energy (fire) prior to walking the green mile?

Sure.

Yes. Kardas will follow suit, but, as tensions seem to be growing and we're still able to cast spells without being noticed, he'll also pop on 'Shield' (8 minutes).

Nervous and feeling like the dumbest donkey to ever be born, Kardas uses the cloak of invisibility to move towards the camp. While there might not be thunder and lightning in the sky overhead, said thunder was going wild inside the swordmage's head.

When Azarra notices Ser following her she uses the message spell again (that should still be running) and whispers

What are you doing? Stop following me! I thought you guys were going to dive bomb the camp and warn them off or something. Even if that isn't still the plan, don't come and stand beside me. You're too clanky. Go be the bait, or whatever it is that you wanted to do in the first place. Get far away from here. I might set fire to the grass at some point.

Perhaps it's a good idea to thrash out the plan before you get any closer.

As far as I know, you guys were still going to try to do some warning from the air and try to drive them off. Ser just wanted to go in by himself or some such, but not sure if he was serious or not. I'm standing out here upwind of the camp so that if everything goes crazy I can start a wildfire or something (not a great idea, but it's all I've got) if the numbers are overwhelming, and if there are just stragglers, I can pick them off with my bow.

If there actually is no plan, then I guess my suggestion is still to kill as many in large groups as possible. (We're already close enough for fireballs. That spell has a range of 760 feet at this level.) If the flyover plan isn't still a plan, then sneaking close enough to see where the largest groupings of people are might help with targeting instead.)

Was waiting to fly to the center of camp; and start eliminating the leaders, but, Ser Armithia has no way of doing the flying part; so he is walking to the center.

My part of the plan was to throw fireballs, yeah, but I needed to get closer since we started 1 mile away. Fireballs would set things on fire and cause much destruction, and probably you guys could finish off what's left of the leaders. 1st level commoners should pose no problem. I thought we had discarded the Lizardfolk hero thing.

Kardas can make Armithia fly, but he'd rather keep the other arcane points in reserve for now. He has 7 points, but one or two will be used to enhance his weapon and another for haste. That leaves him with enough to get another cast of Fly out, but that's about it.

Istha tosses Fireballs and we fly to the center to clean up.

I can make *you* fly, but not myself. If I do that, I won't have any arcane pool points left in reserve to deal with whatever might be coming our way :) if you say 'yes', Kardas will cast it on you. It lasts a whoppin' 9 minutes.

Can a flying person carry someone else? If so, maybe Ser could carry Ishta up to cast her fireballs (try and keep her out of easy bow range) so she can see better, and then bring her back out after she is done... but he can still fly and be the distraction?

I can cast Fly on Ser. I will go walking, with Greater Invisibility.

Okay, I am going to be on this side to pick off survivors with my bow, and I can cast invisibility and sneak closer if needed... like if we don't kill enough and need to move in and set fire to all the tents or something.

Ser Armithia bows to Ishta, waves to Azarra, winks at Kardas; and the elf flies to the center of camp.
I shall wait for the second fireball; prior to landing. I shall be in dead center; working my way toward Azarra, so she can pick them off. Cheers!